intemeratus

Forms

intemerātus (feminine intemerāta, neuter intemerātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“not”) + temerātus (“violated”), the participle of temerō (“to violate, defile”) with the negative prefix.^[2][1] The OLD forms that verb from temere (“blindly, rashly”),^[2] which de Vaan explains as a fossilised locative, Proto-Italic *temesi, of a noun Proto-Indo-European *temH-os- (“darkness”).^[3] Cognate with Sanskrit तमस् (támas-, “darkness”) and Lithuanian tamsà (“darkness”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it from Virgil,^[4] who in the Aeneid pours pure offerings on the hearth: munera libo intemerata focis.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is undefiled, pure, unstained.^[2] Of women it means chaste, untouched: Virgil has a maiden who keeps her love of virginity undefiled, and Ovid has Penelope remain chaste among so many young suitors.^[2][5] Figuratively it is unsullied or unimpaired: Virgil speaks of loyalty still unbroken among mortals,^[2] and Tacitus of a camp kept uncorrupted and undefiled and of cavalry whose discipline the mutiny left intact.^[2][5] Apuleius uses it of proofs of untainted truth,^[2] and Martianus Capella has the comparative.^[5] Church Latin glosses it spotless.^[6] A charter of 1252 has it in place of immoderātus, of an unrestrained fury.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of pure offerings, a chaste maiden and unbroken loyalty.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of a chaste wife.^[2][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of a camp kept undefiled.^[2][4]
• 1252 – A charter uses it for “unrestrained”.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Undefiled, unstained, pure.^[2][5][1][6]
2. Of women, chaste, virgin.^[2][5][1]
3. Unsullied, unimpaired, inviolate.^[2][5][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) Unrestrained, immoderate.^[7]

Related words

• temerō
• temere

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre